Shoes, Other Items To Help Orphans In Haiti

Cash, other items desperately needed

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"Baby Jean" was pulled from the rubble after the earthquake in Haiti and take to UM's makeshift hospital for car. Her parents' whereabouts are unknown.

The pictures coming out of Haiti have many North Texans wondering how they can help.

Volunteers in Mesquite are filling hundreds of boxes with new shoes. Buckner International provides them for orphans around the world, including some in Haiti.

Shoes, Other Items To Help Orphans In Haiti

Volunteers in Mesquite are filling hundreds of boxes with new shoes. Buckner International provides them for orphans around the world, including some in Haiti. (Published Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010)

"These children are always in hurt every day", said Matt Asato with Buckner International. "And especially if we have a disaster, something like this to happen to them it just sets them back even further."

Buckner partners with the Hope Hospital and Hope Village, a private hospital and orphanage in Port-au-Prince. Both were heavily damaged in the quake, but no one was injured.

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"Everyone is doing fine", said Jenny Pope with Buckner International. "The hospital is seeing a lot of casualties and people who are suffering right now. So we're trying to do what we can to get them some financial support and some aid as soon as possible."

The group plans to ship four large containers of shoes and other supplies as soon as possible. Buckner already has approximately 20,000 pairs of shoes, but needs other items and the money to ship them.

"We need clothing, new clothing, we need new shoes, we also need new tents, blankets, first aid kits. Those items," said Asato.

Another organization in Mesquite, Texas Baptist Men, is preparing to send five thousand drip bucket water filters to Haiti.

"It does an excellent job of taking out arsenic bad stuff that you would find in water from mining or other hazards that might be," said Gary Smith with Texas Baptist Men.

The relief organization answered the call from 28 churches in Port-au-Prince to help families who need fresh water.

"The big problem we're running into is distribution, you can't just take it to the airport, unload it and expect it to get to the right place," said Smith.